National Gallery Prague [Národní galerie Praha, NGP]

In 1972, Prague’s Museum of Decorative Arts hosted ‘Design and Plastics’, an international exhibition curated by Milena Lamarová (1930–2006). Presented in both Czech and English, the exhibition and catalogue showcased 120 designs by international artists including Joe Colombo, Verner Panton, Olivier Mourgue, and Quasar Khanh with his inflatable objects, alongside Czechoslovak designers like Václav Cigler, Jiří Hofman, and Miroslav Navrátil. The project was unparalleled in terms of scope and subject matter, with only the ‘New Domestic Landscapes’ exhibition presented by Emilio Ambasz at New York’s MoMA 1971 as coming the closest. It was also pivotal in introducing the term ‘design’ into the Czech discourse.
For Lamarová, the new artificial environment was being defined by ‘the idea of lightness and flexibility . . . an invasion of new visual experiences in the environment’s colour, transparency, and luminosity’, as she wrote on page 13 of the catalogue. For the exhibition, Lamarová commissioned a blow-up environment with a walk-in installation of white PVC cylinders by visionary glass and light designer Václav Cigler and scientific engineer Vladimír Fiřt. Lightness implies mobility, a sense of floating, and a new way of spatial perception.